Doing it the Bernard way has Stroudsburg winning in football

Thursday

Nov 8, 2012 at 12:01 AM

STROUDSBURG — It could be said that Joe Bernard walked into a no-win situation. Bernard, Stroudsburg's football coach the last two years, was the man chosen to replace legendary coach Fred Ross, who after 42 years leading the program, was asked to step down after the 2010 season.

MIKE KUHNS

STROUDSBURG — It could be said that Joe Bernard walked into a no-win situation.

Bernard, Stroudsburg's football coach the last two years, was the man chosen to replace legendary coach Fred Ross, who after 42 years leading the program, was asked to step down after the 2010 season.

Bernard's hiring was one of the most publicized coaching changes — both in the school and in the community — in some time, maybe ever.

Half of the community and most on the team loved Ross, the man who coached multiple generations of players since 1969. The other half felt it was time for a change.

In stepped Bernard, an assistant football coach who was looking for a job after head coach Dave Wannstedt was fired at the University of Pittsburgh. Bernard was Wannstedt's strength coach.

He walked into Stroudsburg without knowing many people. Since then, he's done nothing but win football games. The Mounties won their second straight Mountain Valley Conference championship Friday night and have earned their second straight District 11 Class AAAA berth — the second-seeded Mounties host No. 7 Pleasant Valley at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Bernard's two-year record is 18-4.

"It's honestly a blessing to have him as a coach," said senior lineman Sebastian Joseph. "He taught me so much as a player and as an individual and everyone else here as players and individuals."

The transition from Ross to Bernard was just that, a transition. The two coaches had different styles — Bernard a very fiery, in-your-face coach, who barks at players one minute and embraces them the next.

When Bernard called a coaches meeting at 7:30 a.m. before his first summer practice, his assistant coaches showed up at 7:30. Bernard told them they were all late, that the meeting started at 7:30. The tone was set.

Bernard started grooming the Mounties before the 2011 season with spring practices. Seventy-five kids showed up.

The Mounties went to work that spring and summer, primed to do something they had not done in a decade — beat Northampton. At home on a late summer Friday night in Bernard's first game as head coach, Stroudsburg beat Northampton, 24-12. The course for success was set.

"It would have been a tough sell had we not got out of the gate last year and won," said Bernard, who has coached at the high school and college level. "But to get out of the gate my very first year 3-0, everybody was all in. We had a lot riding on that (Northampton game). We asked them to do so much that they weren't used to doing. You'd better pay dividends and we did. I think that just springboarded us."

Senior Blaine Woodson said after the win over the Konkrete Kids that he began to trust Bernard and what he was teaching and preaching.

"It took some time. I didn't completely trust him until after the first game," Woodson said. "When we beat Northampton last season it was great. He completely had my trust after that, he made the right calls and really put us all together and helped us come together."

When it comes to receiving credit, Bernard wants none of it. He gives it all to his coaching staff and the players. It was both who had to embrace change — Bernard just did what he knows and that's pass along his knowledge to the team.

Make no mistake, Bernard and his staff had fantastic players to work with. Last year quarterback Robert Bennie broke multiple school records, including all-purpose yards for a season (3,022 total yards) which was set by Artie Owens 40 years prior.

Stroudsburg went 9-3 last season, and with Bennie leading the way, launched itself into the district playoffs.

Bennie is now a freshman at the University of Virginia, playing baseball. This would be the year Stroudsburg had to win as a team. This was the year Bernard had to get a group of guys to play together.

"The idea is, you don't build a season, you're trying to build a program," Bernard said.

He instilled a college football philosophy — the one-way player. Only two Stroudsburg players play both offense and defense — seniors Woodson and Joseph.

The players changed after 2011, the expectations did not. Bernard wouldn't let them expect anything less than a championship.

"It's satisfying, but it's expected," Woodson said after Friday night's 27-21 win over Pleasant Valley which secured a 8-0 conference record. "We come out here and we tried our hardest. We practiced hard, so it's expected."

As Bernard's second season comes to a close, it's fairly safe to say that more than the team are believers in Bernard's system. An estimated 2,000 fans came to Friday night's game to watch what the players discovered some time ago, they believe in their coach and what he's teaching.